South Korea and the United States will stage major joint military drills from 17 to 27 August to address threats from North Korea.Officials made the announcement on Monday in response to threats including drones, GPS disruption and cyberattacks as they adapt to North Korea’s evolving capabilities. The yearly Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise will test operations while supporting the South Korean government's emergency preparedness drills, the allies said in a joint statement.Colonel Ryan Donald, director of public affairs for the Combined Forces Command, United Nations Command and U.S. Forces Korea, noted that the training highlighted the shifting nature of warfare, including expanded use of unmanned systems, electronic disruption and cyber operations."DPRK soldiers have deployed and fought in Ukraine, and they've taken those lessons they've learned there and brought them back to North Korea," said Donald, using the initials of the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea."That changes the DPRK capability, and our training accounts for that threat," he said.South Korea’s Col. Jang Do-young, left shakes hands with Col. Ryan Donaldn, public affairs director of the United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command and United States Forces Korea (Song Kyung-Seok/Pool Photo via AP)The drills were strictly focused on threats to the Korean Peninsula and the defence of South Korea, he added.About 18,000 South Korean troops will take part, a scale similar to previous years, said Captain Jang Doyoung of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.While the allies say the drills are defensive in nature, Pyongyang routinely denounces the military exercise as a provocation that heightens tensions.North Korea, which last week fired a short-range ballistic missile towards the sea, has continued developing nuclear weapons, ballistic and cruise missiles, artillery and other conventional systems in defiance of United Nations Security Council sanctions.About 18,000 South Korean troops will take part in the drills (Song Kyung-Seok/Pool Photo via AP)The drills come as relations between the two Koreas remain strained.North Korea has hardened its stance toward South Korea, revising its constitution this year to remove references to reunification and define its territory as bordering the South.A separate defence clause described the North as a "responsible nuclear weapons state" and specified that the country will advance nuclear weapons development.Last week, it was revealed that South Korea planned to resume construction on a railway that could connect with the North Korean city of Wonsan, reviving a scheme stalled for a decade despite strained ties with Pyongyang.Speaking at a presidential briefing, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Seoul will restart the restoration of a severed stretch of the Gyeongwon Line near the Demilitarised Zone bordering North Korea. Initially launched in 2015, the cross-border transit project was paused the following year.According to the ministry, the line starting in Seoul could eventually serve as a link to Wonsan, a key hub on North Korea's eastern coast.